Lauren (Walens) Zarick, MA, is a senior research communications specialist at Child Trends who specializes in developing and analyzing strategic communications plans for projects and organizations. Her main responsibilities include serving as the communications and dissemination director for the National Early Care and Education (ECE) Workforce Center. In this role, Lauren is accountable for the National ECE Workforce Center’s internal and external communications, including aligning messaging and dissemination activities across the core and collaborating partners. 
 
Lauren is a communicator and convener with nearly 15 years of experience in developing strategic communications agendas, research translation, message creation, media relations, stakeholder and coalition engagement, strategic planning, team management, event planning, and spokesperson development. She is passionate about working at the intersection of communications, research, and policy, and her career has largely been focused on health issues. Prior to joining Child Trends, Lauren served as the strategic operations and communications director for PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she led two organizational strategic planning processes; directed strategy and planning for children’s health policy forums; and oversaw communications strategy and media outreach for PolicyLab’s county-level COVID-19 modeling project, which informed mitigation strategies at the national, state, and local levels. 
 
Lauren has partnered with researchers, policy experts, policymakers, community organizations, and funders to elevate priority issues to national reporters through media outreach and op-eds, including in the Washington Post, New York Times, CNN, The Hill, STAT, and other national publications. 
 
Lauren received her master’s in health communications from Johns Hopkins University and holds a BA in public communication from American University. She lives in North Carolina and is working on her life goal of visiting all U.S. National Parks.